Favorite podcasts right now

I feel like I have some new friends in my life and they are…my favorite podcasters! At the risk of sounding like a total nerd and even a bit anti-social, you’ll often find me these days wearing earphones and chuckling to myself.

There is something very intimate about a podcast. I listen with earphones, so it’s just me and the voice on the other end of the microphone. I also like that you can stop or pause at any time, and come back to it later. I also love that once you subscribe, it automatically delivers the most recent episode to your device every week.

So, here are a few of the podcasts I’m listening to right now:

Happier with Gretchen Rubin – Rubin is an author and happiness guru. She loves researching human behavior and I find her work fascinating; I devoured her first book The Happiness Project and now she has another one out called The Four Tendencies. She hosts this podcast with her sister Elizabeth Craft and I love their sisterly banter. They discuss easy ways to improve happiness and foster good habits. Simple things like being kind to your future self, travel hacks, how to deal with a cranky boss, finding ‘the right thing to say’ in difficult situations, etc. Through her Four Tendencies personality quiz, she helps you get to know yourself better — are you an upholder, obliger, rebel or questioner?? I will also say that Gretchen Rubin has emailed me back twice when I’ve written with a comment or question. I will always be a devoted fan!

Happier in Hollywood – Elizabeth Craft (Gretchen’s sister) hosts this one with her writing partner Sarah Fain. They’ve been best friends since high school and you can tell. They are both TV writers in Hollywood and talk often about the crazy life that is Hollywood. But, they’re both super down to earth and I enjoy their guests, some light-hearted moments and career advice, etc. They recently had an interesting and funny discussion about women and their vaginas with Dr. Sherry Ross, the author of She-ology.

Side Hustle School – hosted by Chris Guillabeau. This is a daily podcast that I love! Every day he features entrepreneurs who have started unique money-making ventures either as a side hustle or hobby and many have turned them into very successful businesses. I am always amazed at how some people have a great idea and just run with it. If you’ve ever dreamed of having your own little business on the side (even if you love your day job) you will want to listen to this one. He recently released his book by the same name.

The Longest Shortest Time – this one is hosted by Hillary Frank; I love her voice! This is a great parenting podcast where she discusses kids, motherhood, and the challenges of raising kids in the world today. She did an episode a few weeks ago about genetic testing…if you knew your family carried an increased genetic risk for a deadly disease, would you find out, would you tell your kids, what would you say? Her podcast will have you questioning (in a good way) your own parenting strategies and decisions.

Note to Self – If you are interested in social media, privacy and how the digital age is affecting us all, you will love this podcast. Host Manoush Zomorodi leads thoughtful conversations on these topics and I always walk away feeling like I’ve learned something. She did a deep dive recently into how Facebook targets the ads to its audiences and it was scary! Other topics… is the microphone on your phone listening to you? And just recently, why we all have a bad habit of telling people,” Oh, I didn’t see your text!” Why do we do that??

So, there you have it, friends – my 5 favorite podcasts right now. Here’s an article from Time Magazine with a whole list of other great podcasts you may want to check out. Also, try the site Podsearch, where you can search by topic.

If you want to download podcasts to your phone, just download the Podcast app (icon is a purple microphone) from the Apple store. Or, if you have an Android phone, you can download Stitcher and find your favorite podcast from there. Good luck!